Register Investigation: Q&A with Iowa's Human Services director

Jul. 21, 2013

Written by

Charles Palmer / Special to the Register

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Register reporter Clark Kauffman interviewed Iowa Department of Human Services Director Charles Palmer about the isolation cells used to house young teens for long periods of time at the Iowa Juvenile Home. The home falls under Palmer’s area of supervision.

Question: Disability Rights Iowa has said that at least two children were in isolation last year for two months, and one child for close to one year. Is that consistent with your understanding?

Answer: “I don’t know that we’d totally agree with all of their specific findings. … I don’t know that your data on the length of a year is accurate. We’re continuing to assess the data ourselves.”

Q: How long had the three children been assigned to those rooms?

A: “I’m not going to talk about specific kids.”

Q: Is it correct to say the juvenile home has assigned children to the Support Unit for months at a time?

A: “I don’t know about a year. But I would think there would be some instances where someone was in there for a month, or two, or three.”

Q: On Dec. 18, the three girls were pulled out of the Support Unit within an hour of the attorney general’s office receiving a Disability Rights Iowa letter about one of the girls. Why were the three released on that day at that time?

A: “I don’t know the answer to that.”

Q: Those three had been there for an extended period, with breaks each day?

A: “I guess it becomes a question of the definition of extended. But they were in there for a significant period of time.”

Q: Weeks and months?

A: “Yes.”

Q: In the seven months since then, did anyone at the DHS Central Office pose the question, “Exactly how long have we been keeping children in seclusion?”

A: “We receive a monthly report. Right now we are scrutinizing the data and looking at it very hard. We are reducing the use of the Support Unit by a significant percent.”

Q: No one asked former superintendent Deb Hanus before she left, or the clinical director before she left, how long children were being kept in the home’s Support Unit?

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A: “I don’t know that the specific question has been asked.”

Q: Why would DHS have a facility where children are housed in isolation for extended periods?

A: “Not knowing the specifics relative to the situation on the campus at that time ... we would say we seem to have lacked a set of alternative strategies that we now are putting in place.”

Q: There’s a January 2013 report from the juvenile home’s superintendent and clinical director that concluded, “We understand that the use of seclusion creates significant risks for youth and staff, including serious injury or death ...”

A: “Sometimes not using seclusion introduces the same risk, if not higher.”

Q: Did it surprise you that this report concluded that “the current policies and procedures reflect a poor standard of care in the use of seclusion?”

A: “I had not specifically read that at the time.”

Q: Have you ever read this report?

A: “I have more recently.”

Q: When did you learn of this finding that the current policies and procedures reflect a poor standard of care?

A: “I don’t know that I would totally agree with that. I know that they were doing what they felt they need to do to keep kids safe with the resources and the knowledge base that they had.”